1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a camera and, more particularly, to the structural arrangement of a body of the camera.
2. Description of Related Art
The structural arrangement of a body of a conventional camera has been made as shown in FIG. 6 in general. Referring to FIG. 6, which is an exploded perspective view, the camera body 100 is integrally composed of a cartridge chamber 100a into which a container containing a film therein (such as a film cassette or a film cartridge) is loaded, a spool chamber 100b in which a film take-up spool arranged to take up and wind an exposed part of the film thereon is disposed, an aperture part 100c which is provided for exposing the film to light between the cartridge chamber 100a and the spool chamber 100b, and inner rails 100d and outer rails 100e which are provided outside the aperture part 100c as a travel path of the film for guiding the travel of the film. Dowels 100f mounted on the camera body 100 are arranged to be fitted in respective mounting datum holes 102f provided in a pressure plate 102 ao as to fix the pressure plate 102 in position.
With the camera body 100 arranged in the above manner, a photo-taking lens barrel 101 is secured to a part of the camera body 100 between the cartridge chamber 100a and the spool chamber 100b, and the pressure plate 102 is disposed on one side of the camera body 100 opposite to the photo-taking lens barrel 101 so as to keep the flatness of the film.
FIG. 7 is a sectional view taken across a middle part of the camera shown in FIG. 6. Referring to FIG. 7, it is apparent that portions of the camera body 100 corresponding to the upper and lower inner rails 100d and the upper and lower outer rails 100e are set sufficiently thick in view of the rigidity of the camera body 100.
Meanwhile, in Japanese Laid-Open Patent Application No. HEI 6-95226, there is disclosed such a structural arrangement of the camera body that a fixed photo-taking lens barrel is formed integrally with the camera body for the purpose of reducing the size of the whole camera, and a member having an aperture part and a film-travel rail part, which is formed separately from the camera body, is fixed to the camera body from behind the camera body. In this structural arrangement, the aperture part and the film-travel rail part are relieved from the above-stated requirement for giving a sufficient rigidity to the camera body and thus can be formed thin for reduction in size of the camera.
However, in the structural arrangement of the camera body generally employed in the conventional camera described above, the aperture part inclusive of the film-travel rail part is used not only for interconnecting the cartridge chamber and the spool chamber but also for giving a sufficient rigidity or strength to the camera body. To meet this requirement, the thickness of the aperture part must be sufficiently thick. Therefore, it has been impossible to reduce the thickness of the camera body in the direction of a photo-taking optical axis.
Further, in recent years, a high-magnification zoom lens having two or more times variations of focal length is popularly used in the compact camera. Therefore, in order to enable the camera body to support such a heavy zoom lens, the above-stated requirement for thickening the aperture part has increased.
On the other hand, in the case of the camera disclosed in the above-mentioned Japanese Laid-Open Patent Application No. HEI 6-95226, the fixed photo-taking lens barrel, which is formed integrally with the camera body, serves to strongly connect the spool chamber and the cartridge chamber to each other. The member having the aperture part and the film-travel rail part is not required to serve as such a connecting part. Therefore, this member can be formed thin. However, since the structural arrangement of the camera body is necessarily made complicated, it is still impossible to make the camera body sufficiently thin in the direction of a photo-taking optical axis.